Faith and Blessing

Well we got some not so great news today. I had applied to Life International for an interest free loan. They had called for more information and we had been waiting to hear back. Well the lady called and said that funds would not allow them to help us at this time. She seemed really disappointed and seemed to really care.

Tyler and I are now applying for a regular loan through a credit union he's still a part of. If you wouldn't mind praying that we would get a good loan through them we'd appreciate it. If we can't get a loan through them I'm not sure what we will do! This is also a little scary because Tyler and I have always been debt free and we thought we could come out of the adoption almost that way. But things didn't happen in our way or in our timing. However, I know God will provide

At this point we need about $15,000 to bring Ethan home. It has been neat to see the way God is already providing. We have $2500 of this covered by Shaohannah's Hope (Steven Curtis Chapman's foundation). We have one friend who has given us a gift and another who is giving us some of her inheritance from her mother! It is always wonderful to look BACK and see the way God has worked. However, when you are looking FORWARD and could get "the call" any day and then need the money immediately...well it's a little less relaxing!

On another note...we went to Salina today for diapers. One downfall of living this far out is when you forget to pick a necessary item (like diapers) up while in town you have to make another trip which involves 2 hours of just driving time. Well, while there, we went to Pizza Hut to get the kids their free pizza from our summer reading program. Before our food came the waitress brought over a plate of Cinnamon Sticks and told us there was a gentleman who wanted us to have them! That made our night. Then before we left a couple (not the same ones that gave us the cinnamon sticks) called us over and complimented us on our children. This was amazing since it was 8:30 (past bedtime) and we had only just then fed them dinner! Only by the grace of God were our children anything but screaming hysterical tired messes!

"No Evan...my picture!"

Oh yea, one picture I was going to show you. This is one that did NOT make it into Ethan's book. It was Ellie's turn for pictures and Evan thought he should get in it! As you can see Ellie wasn't thrilled with the idea. This picture just cracks me up! I love Evan's cheesy grin.

Evan's Room

Most of you will remember me talking about Evan's room. I was ripping out carpet , refinishing the hard wood floor, striping wall paper, painting, making curtains...etc. Here are a few pictures of before, during, and after. It's hard to photograph because it is so small in there. These pictures are taken from just outside the door! Also, I don't have a good picture of the curtains but you can see part of them in a few of the pictures. Anyway, they are made out of the same material that I made Ethan's blanket out off. Also, I know there is only one bed...we've been working on that. We eventually would like to do toddler bunk beds (a twin almost fills this room) but for now we are going to use our second mattress like a trundle bed and slide it out at night. This gives the boys more room to play.

BEFORE: The "before" really was pretty nice...until Even started on the wall paper...and then we realized the very old carpet hid the stuff that leaked from Evan's diaper! Yuck...

DURING: Yes, this is red indoor outdoor carpet underneath the brown!

This is what happened in the REST of the house while I was busy...Mix Daddy being gone, Mommy being hard at work, and Evan's room pushed into the living room and this is what you get!

AFTER:We still have a few things to do, but here it is!

Ethan's first birthday gift

September 7th is Ethan's 2nd birthday! When he turns two we will be allowed to send him a small toy and photo album. While in Chicago Tyler and I found a little beanie baby monkey. I made a little blanket out of the same fabric as the big one I'm bring to Vietnam with us and sewed it into the arm of the monkey. I also put a pocket on the blanket for the photo album. Here are some of the pictures we're sending to him.

Ellie took this picture of me

(with the help of the tripod and a bit of cropping on the computer)

This is Evan and Ethan's room.

I'll show you the before, during and after pictures in the next post.

Just a few random highlights

• We have updated pictures of Ethan! I'm not going to repost so check out Ethan's blog.

• We discovered Ethan's name is not really Doan Phu Loc but is. . . (again you'll have to check his blog)

• I had a very discouraging week last week. All the responsibility and work that is going into Awana (much more then I had expected) mixed with child discipline, messy house, among a few other things had me really down. I'm now feeling much better but I'm not very motivated to pick the Awana planning back up because it's what discouraged me in the first place. I think I need a lot of prayer in that area.

• According to Ellie, she is "almost grown up". What does she want to do when she's grown up? With NO hesitation she said "drive". So where does she want to go? "Old McDonald's, Walmart and Target". Yes, my daughter has high expectations for life! :)

• I've been organizing my videos on the computer. One of these days I'm going to post a few for you...so be watching (although it may be a while). In the mean time, here are a few pictures.

Adoption Update

On the adoption front...We got new pictures of Ethan!! His eye looks much better and he is looking so big! I can't wait to pick him up! Also, we got Ellie's passport in the mail so she is officially coming with us now!!

Chicago!

We had a great time in Chicago. We thought we would be sitting in sessions all day and doing lots of study. We did learn a lot but we also had a lot of fun!

I went to my first baseball game (the White Socks vs. the Indians). That was fun and I've decided I like base ball a whole lot more then football! (sorry forgot the camera)

We then got to hang out in down town Chicago with all these huge buildings! I'm from small town (actually no town) America and we don't even have neighbors closer then a mile. I love the city and it was so refreshing to see people (a rare sight in our area)!!! While there we got lunch on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Building (3rd largest in Chicago). We literally ate lunch in the clouds! It was a little scary on the way up though. The lady working there put WAY to many of us in the elevator. We were packed so hard we couldn't move. The elevator jerked, jumped a few floors, sat there and finally delivered us to the original floor. When the doors opened several got off (very quickly) and then the ride up was fine. After lunch we went on a boat tour of Chicago area and the lake and got rained on! It was quite an experience!

The day we left I got the chance to see Heidi, my cousin, and her husband and two boys (the same age as my boys and also adopted). It had been years and I was so great to see them again!

Our trip home was interesting! Because our flight our of Chicago was delayed we missed our connecting flight in St. Loise. The next direct flight was at 4pm the next day. So we spent the day in St. Loise...without a car! We considered going to CHI headquarters but it didn't work out with transportation. Over all we had fun and enjoyed the adventure of it all. I was grateful for the good book I'd bought while at the airport in Chicago.

Sorry this has been so long!!! Here are a few pictures from our "lunch in the clouds" and our boat tour. The picture of the tall building is where we ate!

My Week

Just a few highlights from my week without Tyler, who is gone to camp.

-I redid the hardwood floor in Evan's room. This consisted of pulling up carpet, sanding, filling the cracks, staining, running to the store for more wood filler because the first didn't take the stain, wiping off the stain (which hadn't dried after 12 hours) and resanding because I didn't do it enough the first time, restaining, painting the wood filler because it still didn't take the stain, sanding again, putting on the protective finish, sanding, putting on the 2nd coat of protective finish, sanding, putting on the 3rd coat of protective finish, and begging the kids to stay away from it all!

-Preparing for our trip. Tyler and I are flying out Sunday to an Awana Training program in Chicago. Tyler will get home from camp this Friday with just enough time to leave again for Scottsbluff for a friends wedding and to drop off the kids with Grandma. We will get home late on Saturday, go to church on Sunday and leave for Witchita to catch our plane that afternoon. Between travel, being gone, and having to prepare a sermon, I'm having to pack for him...along with packing for myself and the kids!

-Still working on planning for the Awana program

-Trying to keep up with both my kids (by myself) and get the house clean before our trip.

-Last night we had a huge lightning storm and lost power for a while. It was actually kind of relaxing because I couldn't see to do all the things I needed to do so I just went to bed early! Evan has been clingy lately and crying more at night so I stayed with him while he tried to go to sleep (he's in our room while I redo his floor). Finally I picked him up and laid down in bed and let him fall asleep in my arms...it was so sweet! He seemed so happy and peaceful. He would open his eyes, look at me and smile before closing his eyes again. :)

-Oh, and Ellie asked me how she got into my tummy today! I sort of came up with some answer that didn't really tell her anything, something about how Daddy helped put her there and God helped make her or something like that! She's only 3 and I'm not sure I want "that" talk yet.

-Oh, and then she started asking if I'd always be here and ended up crying (hard crying) twice in two days when she realized that someday I would die.

-Well that has been my week, and it's only Thursday! Well I should go because Ellie has now asked to eat at least 20 times in a row and is now jumping around making these high pitched screeches!

My Cute Kids! :)

I've been neglecting the pictures once again...sorry! So here are a few from July.

JULY 4TH

We had a great turn out for our Church's 4th of July party.

This is Ellie wearing part of the pinata afterwards!

Lighting smoke bombs with Daddy!

VILLAGE MISSIONS CONFERENCE

Evan's Comfy Spot

Dirty Feet :)

We hung a sheet up so Evan would go to sleep.

I love the little feet hanging out!

This is just Evan being...Evan

COPY CATS

If Ellie is doing something Evan has to do it too.

He loves her so much and copies every move!

"He did it!"

"No, she did it!"

OTHER PICTURES

Ellie's "big" bed

They always look so sweet when they sleep!

Evan's been going through a clingy stage and often wants me to just hold him. Sometimes he'll bring the sling and try to put it on me! This time he was so tired he fell asleep while I was making dinner.

I've been having a terrible time with blogger. Notice all the double spacing (or sometimes very small spaces or just uneven in general) in this post, it was not by choice. For some reason the format gets messed up and I can't fix it. I'm always having trouble getting the pictures and labels to be spaced the way I want them. Sometimes everything looks good until I go to preview it and the spacing is still way off. I never have problems if I'm working with just the text. It usually happens when I add more pictures, try to change the order, or try to center them. Any suggestion? Am I the only one having this problem?